This morning I was walking through our neighborhood, and it got me thinking about: ‘Where is the Love’?

Looking around and seeing garbage on the sidewalk, cigarette buds in flower beds, people staring at their phones and not looking at each other, it all seemed so lifeless and loveless to me. Remember those times when everything was beautiful, and people actually looked at each other walking by and said “Hello” or “Good Morning”?

Love is something we all know, we all have in our hearts, we seek it, and it feels good when we share it with others. So, how come some of us grew cold? We have replaced honesty with sarcasm, sensitivity with arrogance, and many guard their true feelings and hide them. When faced with true emotions, people often can’t handle it, and they run. I look around in our neighborhoods, and I see a reflection of how we feel inside.

Like the wise Kibalion phrase says: ‘As within, so without.’

Our neighborhoods are a reflection of us.

We have created such cognitive dissonance towards other people, we have desensitized ourselves to justify our actions, and we have emotionally grown cold. Look around in your neighborhood and be honest with what you see. You probably have forgotten how true beauty looks like, or maybe you have never been in a city that was clean, flowers everywhere, benches to sit on and coffee shops filled with people sipping cappuccino  smiling when someone smiles at them.

Do you hear birds chirping, do you stop and stare at flowers, and contemplate their beauty and perfection reflecting sacred geometry, or do you hear the beeping of cars driving by, and you take the last smoke on your cigarette and throw it in the flower beds nearby while talking on your phone making plans? Be honest. Remember: As within, so without. Every action has a reaction. Every thought is a vibration.

What we see in our surroundings, is the reflection of all of us.

If that is true, what happened to us? Where did the love go?

I am not talking about the kind of love that is displayed on match-making social media sites; I am talking about this human connection that is transported with a hint of innocence, a lingering fragrance of being a true human. It seems, it is gone. Maybe not everywhere, but with the internet connecting our world through continents, and news being shared in minutes, ideas being passed along in seconds, a collective consciousness is emerging because of it.

What is the true consensus of “us”? What have we become?

You might ask why do I feel this way?  Well, look around you.

Does it seem “human” to you with what you are daily witnessing? People are sitting on the streets homeless, trenched in filth, hungry, lonely, sometimes on drugs, but we just walk by. We don’t seem to care. As long as we can justify this idea of “them” and “me” and there is the idea of separation, the person sitting on the street doesn’t even affect us. It has become so “normal” that we nonchalant just look away, and stare at our phone for distraction. But it is more than that? Drive around, freeway, highway, side streets, main streets, how much garbage do you see? Tons. Why? People don’t care. This morning I saw beautiful flower beds designed throughout the city, and people throw their cigarette buds into it, right next to these beautiful flowers. Why? Have people become so devoid of their actions, that they don’t see what is happening? Do they have so much disgust for their own environment that they don’t care to preserve it, even if it’s their own neighborhood? Is it too much to ask to put the garbage into the garbage bin instead of leaving your soda cans, water bottles, lunch boxes, and paper trails, in the middle of the street?

If we would do everything with a touch of love, would it be different? I think so.

We have lost it. Instead, people are chasing the next big thing that adds to their inner value. Material wealth creates independence, that’s what most people think. But when they get there, they are not happy either. Once bills are paid, real estate is bought, business booms, expensive purses are bought, and global travel is embraced, happiness is short lived. Happiness doesn’t come from material things. It comes from within.
We live in a symbiotic world. Everything affects everything else. A smile goes a long way. I gentle hug for a friend expresses care and friendship. A kind word to a stranger warms one’s heart. We grew cold. Every day is a marathon. We equate being busy with success. We value things, instead of each other. We share our thoughts and feelings digitally, instead of emotionally. We have grown cold, and we have developed fears we never had, because communication has changed. Our intellect grew, our love diminished. We don’t live with each other anymore. We share apartments, condos, neighborhoods and cities, but we don’t embrace each other. Separation, segregation and isolation has happened in cities, suburbs and villages. Where is the Love? As within, so without. Look around you. We seem to always want to change the reflection, the outer world, when in fact it’s the inner world we need to address. If you live in a big city, look at your neighborhood, and see if it’s clean, beautiful, or- if it’s dirty, and concrete has taken over nature. What you see is the inner reflection of people in this area. As within, so without. What you see is what we have created. It is WE that reflect through our cities, communities, suburbs and villages. It is WE that must change. We can change the outer reflection, but if the inner world doesn’t change, there will be no real change.

Many of you are too young to realize that there is another world than what you are currently experiencing. Living in a big city, you look around and you see people walking their dogs through the concrete jungle and back into their overpriced apartment. Our world that we have created is isolated. We run to yoga classes to find a true connection,but we don’t create a union within and without. We stop at a local coffee shop and take a muffin and coffee to go, and we stroll down the street with a grin on our face when we have ear buds covering the sound of birds singing, and instead, we listen to the latest digital gossip channels. We have isolated ourselves from nature.

I didn’t grow up in the States, I grew up in Germany, traveling through Europe as a teenager, and as a young adult to other continents; but what I mostly enjoyed about my life, was meeting people from different places around the globe. I loved conversing with people from different countries, and getting to know other cultures.

We have moved into an era where we have more technology, but less communication skills. We have the ability to make our communities a work of art, but we lack the love and care for our surroundings and each other to truly bring Heaven on Earth. Where is the love? Author: TP.